“How do you make them? There’s an old gag about a screenwriter who gets hooked on the cocktails at a Hollywood bar. He begs the bartender for the recipe but is rebuffed. Finally the writer offers him $100. “You wanna know what’s in a Blood and Sand, Mac?” asks the bartender, pocketing the money. “Blood and sand.” It seems this joke was once considered funny.

What really goes into the drink? The ingredients — Scotch, orange juice, cherry-flavored brandy and sweet vermouth — can hardly be described as intuitive. Dale DeGroff, in his book “The Craft of the Cocktail,” says the drink would appear at first glance to be “a godawful mix.” But plenty of serious cocktail guides from the ’30s and ’40s included the drink, so he gave it a try: “The taste convinced me never to judge a drink again without tasting it.” A sound principle.

The right ingredients are crucial. For starters, be sure to use a cherry-flavored brandy or liqueur, such as Cherry Heering, and not the cherry eau-de-vie known as kirsch. Cherry Heering is widely available and worth having, as it turns up in a number of old cocktail recipes and even a few new ones. For his recent book “Imbibe,” David Wondrich solicited new cocktails from more than a dozen prominent mixers. One of the best came from Julie Reiner, who runs the Flatiron Lounge in New York. Her Cherry Smash is made with cognac, orange curaçao, lemon juice and Cherry Heering, and it would be good enough reason alone to buy a bottle of the cherry liqueur.”